I  think, it's not just about gathering the academic knowledge, transformation in children should also happen in school. For example, if a student has learnt biology and becomes a very good medical student then that student performs a wrong surgery just to make money, so unless the transformation happens the society cannot get better at all. I feel that COVID has brought a big lesson for everybody in the society because we keep talking about children getting transformed, getting value based education but how will children get value unless he sees it in society. Whatever we teach in the classroom, they think it is for scoring marks even for value education. They try to score 98 in that. Students don't think that it needs to be applied outside. What's wrong is that there are no role models in society.

At Chinmaya Mission Trust, we believe strongly in the personality transformation of the child. We want that our student should stand out in the crowd well rooted with  the values that he has learnt and he will not compromise with the values.

It is also written in Bhagavad Gita that elders in the society need to set an example for students. So, a lot of responsibility lies with the schools, teachers, parents, all of us have to communicate this to the children. And this period has brought in a big lesson for the adults also. Children have to be taught about mindful eating and not eating junk food. In science lessons, we teach students about communicable diseases, prevention but nobody was bothering. It was all lying in the books and students writing it in the examination. Today, all of us are getting a lesson on eating habits, maintaining cleanliness, and yoga. At Chinmaya Mission Trust, we give a lot of importance to the physical aspect of the child. Body has to be prepared for learning. In earlier times, students were made to come out of the comfort zone to be ready to learn and nowadays, focus is completely on academics. After COVID, think a complete rejuvenation is going to happen to the education system.

Shanti Krishnamurthy
Director, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust (CCMT) Education cell